STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 257 



world, sighted, in 1722, two large islands or tracts of land in the 

 Western Pacific, which he named Tienhoven and Groningen (the 

 Groningue of some writers). Behrens, the narrator of the expedition, 

 considered them to be portions of the Terra Australis. Geographers, 

 however, have differed widely in their attempts to identify these 

 islands. Dalrymple and Burney held the opinion that these islands 

 were none other than the Solomon Islands ; but the question is of 

 iittle importance to us, as no communication took place with the 

 natives. 



In bis " Histoire des Navigations aux Terres A.ustrales," which 

 was published in Paris, in 1756, De Brosses, after referring to the 

 circumstance that geographers differed a thousand leagues in locating 

 this group, inserts, as giving quite another idea of their position, the 

 story of Gemelii Careri, when on his vo3'age from Manilla to Mexico, 

 in command of the great galleon. It appears that when they were 

 in 34° north lat., a canary flew on board and perched in the rigging. 

 Careri at once inferred that the bird must have flown from the 

 Solomon Islands, which lay, as he learned from the seamen of his 

 vessel, two degrees further south. The source of the Spanish com- 

 mander's information might have suggested some rather odd re- 

 flections : however, De Brosses, as if to justify this belief of the 

 sailors of the galleon, refers to two islands, Kinsima (Isle of Gold) 

 and Ginsima (Isle of Silver), lying about 300 leagues east of Japan, 

 which, having been kept secret by the Japanese, had been in- 

 effectually sought for by the Dutch in 1G39 and 1643.^ De Brosses, 

 it should be remembered, was writincr when the Isles of Salomon 

 were in the minds of many a myth. That this notion of the seamen 

 of the galleon should suggest to him two legendary islands placed 

 east of Japan, islands believed by the Dutch not to belie their names 

 in mineral wealth, sufficiently shows how M'ild speculation had be- 

 come with reference to the position of this mysterious group. 



In a few years, however, there was a revival of the spirit of 

 geographical enterprise in England, under the enlightened auspices 

 of George III. ; and the time was approaching when, in anticipation 

 of the transit of Venus in 1769, the attention of the English and 

 French astronomers and geographers was more specially directed to 

 the South Pacific, with the purpose of selecting suitable positions 

 for the observation of this phenomenon. M. Pingre, in his memoir 

 on the selection of a position for observing the transit of Venus, 



1 Tome I., p. 177. 

 R 



